WRS Adaptive Learning Solution

1. High discrepancies in students’ attainment levels; While the standard Bell curve can reflect the expected standard variations in students’ performance under regular circumstances where students' personal and academic experiences are somehow homogenous, the curve is expected to be significantly flattened when the extreme and varying individual students background and experiences weigh in as within refugees and displaced communities. This represents a serious challenge in conventional teaching environments as it becomes difficult for teachers to fill the wide range of students’ needs and varying comprehension levels. The underlying cause for this is usually the fact that students’ comprehension is an accumulative process and individual gaps in students’ attainment will reduce their ability to advance academically.
2. Another related issue is the placement of refugee and displaced students in new educational systems, especially as they cross borders to other countries. This has been a major logistic problem for hosting countries' educational authorities as they needed to evaluate incoming students’ levels and attainment to place them in the right grades and identify the right bridging courses to fill their educational gaps. 
3. Based on research done by UNHCR, there are more than 82 million forcibly displaced individuals around the world by 2020. By many reports, at least half of school-age refugees and forcibly displaced children are not in school. The education shortfall among refugee and displaced children stands in the way of any long-term or short-term relief.

The WRS adaptive Learning solution is a cloud-based, web-enabled, platform-independent E-learning platform created to facilitate and support the entire educational process in a truly adaptive manner. This platform would compensate for the lack of key resources in targeted communities. It includes a Learning Management System (LMS) to organize the delivery and tracking of courses, a Student Information system (SIS) to manage and administrate students as well a Content Management System (CMS) to organize content. The system’s operations are based on an adaptive learning mechanism that personalizes the learning process and fills the gaps in learners’ education thus synchronizing students’ comprehension levels. A complementary component of the system is what is referred to as a Meta-Curriculum which is basically an accumulative, comprehensive, and interlinked set of learning outcomes from different global and local educational systems. The meta-curriculum will serve as a universal frame of reference for implementing any local curriculum solution.

The solution is meant to serve refugee and forcibly displaced students in addition to those living in fragile communities. The common factors between our targeted groups are the lack of educational infrastructure and the high discrepancies in same-class students’ comprehension levels. Our end goal is to help harmonize students’ attainment thus making in-class learning more fruitful. It is worthwhile emphasizing that in regular circumstances and especially in more favorable environments, schools would conduct reinforcement classes for students behind, or parents can arrange for some sort of private tutoring, but this option is obviously not available to our targeted groups. Accordingly, we do believe that the WRS adaptive solution will enhance students’ education so no student is left behind.

One main input of the WRS Adaptive Learning Solution is the set of learning standards/Objects of the targeted Educational System. These Objects are mapped against a set of Educational resources including relevant content, question banks, and worksheets. As students progress through their assigned lessons according to predefined lesson plans, they are presented with a series of diagnostic assessments. Their comprehension is dynamically evaluated and any existing gaps are identified. Then the system will direct them to individualized tracks with the suitable content they need to remediate. Once the individualized track is completed, another diagnostic assessment will take place to identify any further gaps. This process would drill down across grade boundaries, and would also drill horizontally across subject boundaries for interrelated subjects (such as Math and Science). The system uses intelligent data mapping and mining techniques to create those individualized tracks.  Once applied, the outcome of this process would be a much more homogeneous classroom in terms of students’ comprehension and attainment. This process would help restore the bell-shaped comprehension graph making in-class learning much more effective and fruitful.

Tackling such a critical mission required the right combination of technology and pedagogy expertise. It also required a great deal of data gathering and analysis, especially in relation to the different educational systems and learning standards. Moreover, a significant effort had to be spent on the provision and curation of digital content and adapting the solution to specific communities’ requirements. The backbone of those activities has always been a dedicated group of WRS professionals that included highly competent curriculum designers, instructional designers, subject matter experts, and IT professionals. WRS strongly believes that the participation of these professionals in addition to the accumulated educational resources they built are the keys to any success. It is important to emphasize that WRS realizes that technology is just a tool used to achieve educational goals and has utilized it accordingly. No concessions were made to adapt educational goals to technology restrictions or platform requirements, but it was always the other way around.  

During projects’ planning and execution, WRS works closely with local educators and educational bodies to develop its programs. It utilizes national curriculums and local learning standards in coordination with each country’s educational bodies. WRS also trains local educators, establish local training centers, and coordinates with local communities and organizations in providing its services in and around refugee camps. WRS also makes sure that the hosting communities are served alongside the immigrants. WRS has adopted a business approach that utilizes partnership networks of competent International and local partners. This network includes technology partners, program assurance and accreditation partners, teachers’ training partners, educational content provision partners, and others. This approach has been pivotal in WRS's success as it allowed it to focus on its key competencies being delivering a truly personalized adaptive e-learning solution.

Moreover, WRS has successfully implemented one of its programs in Idlib, North Syria using the same approach and methodology. Due to its impact on the lives of the local community, WRS was awarded .ORG non-profit of the year award in 2019: (https://2019.orgimpactawards.o...). Furthermore, WRS is currently involved in a few other projects in Africa such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Uganda. 

Drawing positive attention to our adaptive learning solution is one main reason for applying to this challenge. Positive attention from International NGOs, academia, funding agencies, and international organizations would open a lot of doors for us to apply what we believe is a much-needed solution to a real-life problem. This, in turn, will enable us to achieve our declared mission of providing relevant education to the refugees and fragile communities in the widest possible space. Moreover, it can help us expand our network and partnership arrangements and facilitate our access to much-needed educational resources.

Some of the aspects that make WRS Adaptive Solution innovative are:

• It is not a specific Educational System/curriculum dependent. WRS has developed a universal repository of learning standards and outcomes that can be easily adapted and sequenced to suit any given educational system or curriculum. Moreover, those outcomes can be dynamically interlinked to other online or locally developed educational resources such as digital textbooks, online content, multimedia enrichments, worksheets, and various assessment and question banks. This setup allows for a speedy and efficient deployment regardless of the targeted educational system.
• The solution is truly adaptive; vertically across school grades and horizontally across different study subjects

The impact we are working towards is to help solve the formal education problem for refugees worldwide. We intend to achieve that by providing an adaptive e-learning solution that accommodates their special circumstances and needs. The solution can be operated as a standalone or to support a functional educational process.

WRS believes that its solution will facilitate establishing better educational systems where students make the best out of the available educational resources and achieve the desired learning standards and outcomes. This, of course, will pave the way for better higher education opportunities.  It will also enhance school graduates’ chances of entering the work market. Moreover, better Education would certainly elevate individuals, families, and communities out of poverty and social hardship which could, along with other socioeconomic factors, lead to social instability and ideological radicalization.

Although it is difficult to quantify the prospect target population, our current estimate is that if the needed funding is allocated and there were no hard obstacles, we should reach around 250,000 students next year and hopefully more than 5 million students in the next 5 years.

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is universal, holistic, and indivisible, with a special imperative to leave no one behind. The achievement of SDG 4 – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all – was one of WRS’s main guidelines since it was established. Progress in this direction is measured by the achievement of a set of performance indicators. These indicators are intended to demonstrate how effectively the system is preparing pupils to perform in the real world. Relevant KPIs in this context include the following aspects:

• Teaching and learning

Measuring the effectiveness of teaching and learning, in relation to curriculum content and program learning outcomes. They will consider large and small group teaching, practical sessions, directed individual learning, the integration of skills within curricula, and distance learning. They include evaluating the breadth, depth, pace, and challenge of teaching; whether there is a suitable variety of teaching methods; the effectiveness of the teaching of subject knowledge, and subject-specific, transferable, and practical skills.

• Student progression

Evaluating student progression by considering recruitment, academic support, and progression within the program. They will assess whether there is an appropriate matching of the abilities of students recruited to the demands of programs; and whether there are appropriate arrangements for induction and identification of any special learning needs. 

• Learning resources

Measure whether the minimum resource necessary to deliver each program is available, and will then consider how effectively resources are utilized in support of the intended learning outcomes of the programs under review. Consideration will be given to the use of equipment (including IT), accommodation (including laboratories), and the library (including electronic resources).

• Enrollment Rates

Enrolment rates are expressed as net enrolment rates, which are calculated by dividing the number of students of a particular age group enrolled in all levels of education by the size of the population of that age group. Generally, figures are based on headcounts and do not distinguish between full-time and part-time study. Enrolment rates are also broken down by gender.

• Equality Indicators

This is a measurement of the fairness of education provision and quality of learning outcomes, as well as access to schooling. This will need to cover a wide range of population categories including gender, ethnicity, social status,…).

• Student Achievement

Student achievement is shown using indicators that measure the percentage of school students who achieve proficiency in schools and national tests in reference to the national learning standards.

• Attendance Rates

The rate of attendance in education gives an indication of the extent to which school-aged residents are engaged in some form of education. The rate includes data spanning the main forms of education including public and non-government schools.

• Graduation Rates

This KPI determines the number of students who completed their schooling or received a particular certificate or degree within the normal time frame.

The direct outcome of applying the WRS adaptive learning solution would be a much more homogeneous classroom in terms of students’ comprehension and attainment levels. The direct impact would be a more effective in-class teaching as the majority of students are in tune in terms of prerequisites and comprehension, and therefore fall within the range of teachers' focus.  The actual change was brought about by the synchronization process. Students don’t necessarily fall behind because they fail to comprehend new concepts but rather because they miss some key prerequisites. The WRS Adaptive Learning Solution addresses this key issue.

A number of research papers confirmed the effectiveness of Adaptive Learning on students’ comprehension and satisfaction including:

C. Limongelli, F. Sciarrone, M. Temperini, and G. Vaste, "Adaptive Learning with the LS-Plan System: A Field Evaluation," in IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 203-215, July-Sept. 2009, doi: 10.1109/TLT.2009.25.

The authors concluded: “through the Layered Evaluation, we confirmed that the added value of the system was due to the adaptive engine”.

• Cloud-based E-Learning Platform

WRS has adopted EduWave as its comprehensive e-learning platform after a due diligence process that included several other platforms was performed by Ford Foundation and other Subject Matter Experts. The platform includes a set of fully-integrated modules in a single unified framework; including Learning Management, Content Management, Assessment Management, Instructional Design Management, and Communication & Collaboration.

EduWave is a comprehensive Education Management System that functions at the system level, school level, classroom level, and individual student level; and provides tools for administrators, teachers, students, and parents. This baseline is delivered by the EduWave Education Management Information System (EMIS). Additionally, EduWave provides a full Education and Learning Management System (ELMS), which manages resources as well as educational processes and content. With that extension the system enables and strengthens not only overall system management, but also empowers teachers and students; allows for more universal certification; better teacher, parent, and student communities; systematic continuous improvement of education and of educational content, and much stronger teacher training and support. In that sense, EduWave is the core contribution by WRS and its founding member ITG that makes all the other contribution components possible.

• Interactive Devices

There are three standard approved mechanisms for students' interaction with the e-learning systems; one or more of the following are usually adopted by schools:

1. Using Smart Boards in Classrooms
   
   The learning materials are presented to the students collectively, and interactions with the education management system is limited to the teacher or supervisor. This mechanism is usually used in the classroom to address curricula that usually depend on multimedia and simulation techniques. It is clear that this mechanism does not employ and therefore does not benefit from the features of interaction, customization, and adaptive learning the e-learning systems provide. Yet, it has a positive impact in terms of clarifying concepts or promoting the performance of distinguished teachers.
2. Utilizing Computer Labs

Computer labs give students the advantage of interacting with the education management system at different levels. This mechanism provides the ability to control the speed of content delivery in a way that is consistent with the individual competencies of the student. It also allows students to self-assess and provides the Adaptive Learning feature, which directs students to appropriate educational resources.

• Mobile Units / Classes

One of the strategies proposed by WRS in target areas is the use of mobile classrooms. Mobile classrooms are fully furnished, fully equipped, and fully staffed. They are built into trailers on wheels and can be easily attached to a small-to-mid-sized truck to be hauled from location to location. This unique approach gives educators the ability to bring teachers, classroom facilities, and technology directly to learners and their communities. It conveniently provides opportunities for targeted instruction, community engagement, social cohesion, and development. The positive impact of mobile education has the potential to reach thousands of learners who would not normally have access to quality education. 

Mobile centers can not only be configured for traditional classroom settings but also tailored for special purposes, such as science labs and counseling centers. 

Mobile Classroom Trailers are built to be fully self-sufficient classrooms, equipped with and characterized by the following:

• Accommodates up to 25 students/unit
• Ergonomically designed seating/study areas
• Networked computer lab with PCs, laptops, and/or tablets
• Large presentation LED/LCD screen / Smart Projector
• Internet connectivity and on-board WiFi
• Printing and scanning devices 

We at The World Refugees School (WRS), have made sure all along our journey to provide a great example as a non-profit that advocates for diversity, equity, and inclusivity. Throughout the years, we have built a strong foundation of core values and principles in which we strongly believe and are driven by: 

• Diversity: WRS recognizes, understands, and values all differences of diversity, leading to empowered humanity. 
• Equity: WRS invests in education equity to ensure all children in need have equal chances of quality learning.
• Inclusivity: WRS leaves no one behind, advocating for inclusive quality education.

Starting from within our own workforce, from the beginning of structuring our respected supervisory board (Board of Directors), we have, and still are including a variety of diverse backgrounds, languages, cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, religions, and gender. Not only restricted to that, but also throughout our projects in different parts of the world, connecting with many people from different backgrounds and cultures, it is our nature of work to advocate for inclusivity, especially through education.

When it comes to education, and from the work we do, our approach recognizes that education is one of the equalizing empowerment mechanisms that vulnerable communities especially in rural areas can benefit from no matter where they are. We contribute to changing the education narrative around the world, especially when it comes to female learners and gender parity. We strive to create a learning space that outlines a safe environment and standards of respect to fight discrimination and create gender balance at all levels of education and promote inclusive quality education that advocates for building more peaceful and equitable societies.

At its core, WRS is about providing online education to refugee and forcibly displaced children and youth. Through this initiative, WRS contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations to address key global challenges around education and poverty reduction. Specifically, the WRS mission supports the following SDGs:

• SDG 4: Ensuring inclusive and equitable education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.
• SDG 17: Strengthening the means of implementation and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development.

At WRS we are committed education providers ensuring that every refugee and forcibly displaced child receives quality primary and secondary education. We leverage cutting-edge, proven educational technologies that are cost-efficient, scalable, and adaptable to different curricula and content appropriate for refugee and forcibly displaced children and youth regardless of location.

Executive Summary

The World Refugees School (WRS) was founded in 2017 by a number of private sector organizations concerned with global refugee educational needs. WRS is a sole member of a US 501(c)(3) charitable organization and has operating entities in several countries. WRS leverages technology to provide scalable, affordable, and certifiededucation for the world's refugee children, displaced children, and children in fragile communities. It is governed by a Global Board that is generally guided by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address key global challenges around education. WRS is positioned to provide state-of-the-art educational solutions that manage delivery, evaluation, and progress tracking, and at the same time are based on high-quality educational resources covering multiple national curricula in different languages.

Since WRS aims to achieve its mission by creating an ecosystem of partners and working with and through them, the recruitment of selected partners and the terms of the agreement is crucial to our strategy in the execution of any project or program.

WRS works with committed education providers to ensure that every refugee child receives quality primary and secondary education. From that end, WRS leverages cutting-edge, proven educational technologies that are cost-efficient, scalable, and adaptable to different curricula and content appropriate for refugee and forcibly displaced children and youth regardless of location, in addition to local students attending formal classes. The WRS innovative and systematic solution will lead to the long-term improvement of education for every child through the following components:

• A comprehensive Education Learning Management Platform that allows efficient education and learning management at all levels, as well as the harvesting of data to document resource allocation, education, and learning outcomes. 

• A system that allows the tracking of individual student achievement in relation to all relevant curricula; the establishment of standardized commensurability of these curricula; globalized certification and accreditation. 

• A trust-owned content repository that will strengthen global content creation and make sure all content is tagged according to standardized learning outcomes; curated; and reviewed. All data will be harvested based on the student’s use and learning from the content as input to AI engines that will allow for the improvement of content.

• The deployment of next-generation teacher training with world-class partners. Technology will be used in teacher training. 

Distinctive Features and Cost Efficiency of World Refugees School projects:

• Offering comprehensive formal education based on the official curricula for all school grades. While the majority of international agencies’ projects focus on providing informal, unformal, bridging, literacy or supplementary educational programs, WRS is tackling the critical issue of certifiable formal K12 education.

• Providing an integrated and comprehensive educational environment that simulates that of the formal school where specific scope and sequencing, lesson plans, and schedules are in place. Also, adopting a well-defined framework for students’ registration, interaction, and evaluation. Additionally, the utilization of students’ follow-up and performance analysis tools. This comprehensive approach sets the WRS solution apart from most organizations whose effort is mostly limited to providing a digital environment that allows students to access open educational materials without presenting them within an integrated schooling framework.

• WRS Provides an adaptive learning environment through which individual study tracks can be presented to participating students each according to their own abilities, track records, and gaps.

• WRS model adopts the so-called distributed education, where the educational environment is adapted in accordance to available educational resources, the geographical distribution of students, and available schooling facilities, and can be easily reconfigured to accommodate arising circumstances.

• WRS provides an integrated solution to the educational process, including digital curricula, educational enrichment, teacher training, student follow-up, and provision of mobile school classes, as well as the assessment and supervision of exams and the granting of accredited certificates. Within the limits of our knowledge, no international organization working in this field offers such a comprehensive solution.

• Accreditation of the school's educational programs and academic certificates by highly credible international bodies such as City and Guilds. WRS strongly believes that accredited certification is significant for all targeted grades as it guarantees program assurance on one hand and the ease of student transfer between schools and educational systems on the other.

WRS Vision

Leveraging technology to provide scalable, affordable, and certified high-quality education for the world’s refugee and displaced children, and communities in fragile countries.

WRS Mission

Solve the education problem for the worlds’ refugee, displaced, and fragile communities.

WRS Services: Building Blocks

The system of connected critical resources that WRS with its partners developed consists of the following building blocks. Each building block represents a workstream and a work plan for WRS and/or WRS partners:

• Education and Learning Management Platform

One of the key obstacles to better funding and better implementation and improvement of large-scale education efforts related to refugees and in fragile countries is the lack of data, transparency, and accountability. To deliver that requires a comprehensive Education Management System that functions at the system level, school level, classroom level, and individual student level; and provides tools for administrators, teachers, students, and parents. This baseline is delivered by the EduWave Education Management Information System (EMIS). Additionally, EduWave provides a full Education and Learning Management System (ELMS), which manages resources as well as educational processes and content. With that extension the system enables and strengthens not only overall system management, but also empowers teachers and students; allows for more universal certification; better teacher, parent, and student communities; systematic continuous improvement of education and of educational content, and much stronger teacher training and support.

• Global and Digital Content Repository

WRS and its partners will provide a Global Digital Content Repository (GDCR), organized as an independent trust, where all digital educational content can be made available; where the content and its links to learning outcomes (and thereby Curricula) will be curated; where it will be reviewed by its users, and where eventually data on its use with students will inform AI systems to augment the on-going improvement process.

The GDCR will in a major way help make technology an enabler of scale and quality of education even for the most exposed children.

In the development of the repository, its curation function, and its AI Engine, WRS is working with an ecosystem of world-class partners. By creating language/culture verticals within the GDCR there is the possibility of catalyzing clusters of content producers as well as communities of translators and adapters and sponsors for their activities.

• Teacher Training

Good education is a social process where other students, parents, and of course teachers are indispensable learning resources for the child. Technology can be an additional and empowering tool for the learning process of the child and for groups of children.  To unleash this potential a well-trained teacher and a teacher whose work is supported and enhanced by the teacher’s use of technology is necessary. As part of the Global Partner of Educations (GPE) Knowledge and Innovation Exchange, best programs, practices, and tools for teacher training and support are being consolidated, researched, improved, and deployed on the scale. WRS and its partners are adding to this base by adapting new scaling methods and stronger leverage of technology. Components in our model are:

1. Intense Boot Camp:
   Selected teachers for WRS programs will start their training in an intense boot camp where they will be trained for a different teaching role (considering the widespread use of digital content) and brought up to a sufficient level of computer fluency.
2. Schools as Communities of Practice:
   The rest of their training will be in-service where they will start as a teaching apprentice with an over-seeing teacher, with online and digital support, and where the school will be developed as an active community of practice with senior teachers serving as masters and as subject leads.
3. Certification:
   One of the reasons refugee children give up on education is that their circumstances and the schooling offered will not lead to an internationally recognized and accredited certificate. WRS is committed to a promise that every deserving child will receive a certificate and that WRS will provide the data, the documentation, the certified teachers, and the oversight that will lead to international recognition of the certificate.
4. Training Modules:
   While much learning for teachers will result from their participation in the schools as communities of practice, this will be complemented by the provision of training modules, some in digital form, others as distance learning, and some as traveling learning programs from school to school.

WRS Mobile Units 

One of the strategies proposed by WRS in the target areas is the use of Mobile Classrooms. Mobile Classrooms are complete, fully furnished, fully equipped, and fully staffed classrooms. Mobile Classrooms are built into trailers on wheels and can be easily attached to a small-to-mid-sized truck to be hauled from location to location. This unique approach gives educators the ability to bring teachers, classroom facilities, and technology directly to learners and their communities and provides opportunities for targeted instruction, community engagement, social cohesion, and development at the doorstep of those learners that are most in need. The positive impact of mobile education in the areas where mobile education centers operate has the potential to reach thousands of learners who would not normally have access to quality education and empower them to improve their level of education.

Mobile classrooms can be configured for general education or tailored for special purposes such as science/experiment labs and counseling centers.

WRS realizes the significance of organizational sustainability, financial sustainability, and operational sustainability. It has established an ecosystem of partners to cover the main domains within its solution. One of the core categories of partners includes funding agencies that help in sponsoring and sustaining its programs. The list of partners varies from the private sector (Tech Companies), NGOs and foundations, governments, and others. WRS has been building this network of partners since 2017. Therefore, it is committed to working with funding agencies and local partners, and communities, in addition to technology providers and other NGOs to guarantee the continuity of the project beyond the years covered in any of its projects. 

In addition, WRS prioritize seeking sustained donations by having donors adopt the education of a child over a course of a year as well as collecting donations from funders who are willing to sponsor a school or a classroom. 

Beyond that and for long-term income generation, WRS suggests applying a certain minimal fee for the certification/accreditation to be either paid by students requiring this type of certification or by a funding agency. This fee can help cover the long-term operational cost of the project, especially if it was expanded to cover more students and schools. Other options include making the platform available for online access by students. Meanwhile, organizational sustainability can be guaranteed through continuously engaging local partners' stability on the ground. Also, the continuous participation of partners is essential in guaranteeing the projects’ sustainability. 

Moreover, and in order to cover its own overheads and internal operations, WRS charges an average of 7% of its projects’ cost as Management fees. Additionally, WRS would provide services to other partners, usually through joint venture arrangements, on a cost-plus basis and would channel the generated income to its ongoing project or to cover some of its own administration costs. 

To conclude, other fundraising efforts within the WRS also include campaigns, crowdfunding, and individual donations. This is considered an essential part of giving from the WRS global community. Moreover, in-kind contributions from the private sector are also considered a critical method for improving and sustaining the quality of our programs. 

WRS has achieved a global precedent and recognition in the field of charitable work, from implementing the first phase of the “Technology-Assisted Education Project” in northern Syria, Idlib. (The First NGO Worldwide to offer an Internationally Recognized Formal Educational Program: (https://www.prnewswire.com/new...).

The first phase of the project achieved many outstanding milestones. Involves 18,000 beneficiaries, 1,342 certificate holders, 114,000 teaching hours, 516 computers, 60 smart classrooms, 18 mobile classrooms, 305 staff, and 4,830 affiliated with the program.

Its aim was to strengthen and support the educational process in the target areas by compensating for the lack of educational resources with modern digital technologies and Adaptive learning tools, thereby achieving international accreditation of students’ degrees. The project was successfully implemented in six schools across the northern Idlib countryside. WRS provided digital curricula, an online e-learning platform, mobile classrooms, teacher training services. The solution was based on the National Syrian Curriculum, which has been computerized and enriched by multimedia programs and comprehensive teachers’ recordings for each subject. The complete solution and setup were quality controlled and accredited by the City and Guilds of the UK.

WRS, alongside local and international coordinators and funding agency, achieved all the project goals including complementing school facilities, supervising the educational processes, revising the teaching content for quality control, setting benchmarks for the learning processes, supervising school examination, and issuing accredited certificates upon the completion of the program.

A second phase of the project has been planned and WRS is waiting for the final approval from the same source of funding. 

As the first batch of WRS students in northern Syria graduated to obtain internationally recognized official certificates, the program is in plans of continuing its operations through income generated from the certification fees that will be used to financially sustain this project or by making the platform available for online access by students who are keen on studying the Syrian curriculum, inside and outside Syria, in return for minimal fees. 

Furthermore, WRS was able to secure funding from its network of funding partners to help deploy and maintain its project in North Syria. The value of the project was around US$ 6 M. WRS in agreement with the funding agency, has deducted 7% of the total value of the project to cover some of its own overheads and operational costs.

On that note, WRS had received a grant from Ford Foundation from the US for its project in Jordan for Syrian Refugees. The funding received was allocated to launch the education project in Al-Mafraq in collaboration with DOT and Mateen. This project touched the lives of many Syrian refugee families and gave hope to the children in the community. 

From that, WRS also received a grant from.ORG foundation for being the only Non-Profit Organization in the world that offers formal education with accredited certificates for its students in North Syria 2019 and was awarded.ORG non-profit of the year for its efforts with Syrian refugees in Idlib, north Syria:(https://2019.orgimpactawards.o...)

WRS in partnership with Future of School (FoS) from the US is creating a sustainable plan to serve the needs of children at refugee camps on the Ukrainian/Polish border where nearly two-thirds of Ukrainian refugees have fled to date. Future of School and World Refugees School will be traveling shortly to Poland to assess the situation and build an urgent action plan to provide immediate educational support and resources to vulnerable children in refugee camps. While most importantly, WRS and FOS will be coordinating activities and making critical introductions to national and local governments, organizations, and potential funding agencies for the support the project.